Cast

Synopsis

After being worked to death, Kim Young soo (Kim In kwon) gets the chance to live a charmed life when he possesses Lee Hae joon (Rain), a hottie and all-around perfect guy. Meanwhile, Hong Nan (Oh Yeon seo) starts behaving as if she’s possessed by a man, and Shin Da hye (Lee Min jung) — a widow with new romantic appetites — turn Hae Joon’s department store upside down. ~Dramafever

Review

The convoluted synopsis would confuse even those who have watched, and for those of you who haven't -- yet -- take my word for it, you're in for a treat.

This is really about two men under entirely different sets of circumstances who end up on a train bound for the afterlife when they strike the same deal to return in order to set some things to right before they'll accept their ultimate fate.

Kim Young soo is a diminutive corporate man working his diminutive ass off for a flagging department store. He's married to a pretty woman and they have a young daughter while also being responsible for his aging father.

Han Ki tak is a single man, former gangpae, running a successful bistro when he is once again caught in a scandal with a former beauty queen/actress married to a psychopath, and the psychopath just happens to be President of the flagging department store.

These two are permitted to return to Earth for a short period of time, but they return as new identities: Young soo is now Rain and Ki tak is now Oh Yeon seo, a woman.

Their individual missions are to protect the women they love and right the wrongs done them without being able to reveal themselves to anyone.

And so the story goes . . .

This was filled with laughter, suspense, and even a few tearful instances, but overall, it was a delight to watch.

It made Rain's comeback after serving time in the military worth the wait, and knowing he's engaged to an older woman lent a bit of spice to his role.

Drawbacks

included the sappy soundtrack overwrought with anxiety-ridden melodramatic strings that overpowered each scene.

The to-be-expected recaps and redundancy were only mildly irksome, but they are included in this sixteen-episode melodrama/comedy/romance.

All the guys were Ken dolls, including Rain.

Yes, it's fantasy, but toward the end they wiped any memory of Ki tak from everyone's mind, which makes zero sense and would imply he never existed in the first place -- which means he died and returned for nothing, making his role entirely pointless.

And, when Young soo is mowed down by a car, he's injured and bleeding, ends up in a hospital, and with hours to go before 'death' -- so -- at this point in the story, was I supposed to believe that the dead are capable of invading the body of the living?

The subs were laughable, too. Definitely one instance where a foreigner can assume what they are reading isn't entirely what is being said.

unfold

gouge

restraining

Quandaries

Yeah, Rain's still hot and still got it goin' on, but maybe because of his short do, I couldn't help noticing his lazy left eye. This seems to be a Korean actor phenomenon, so maybe it isn't as big a deal over there as it is here.

I kept worrying he'd stroke out at some point.

During the above-mentioned hospital scene -- and I bring this up because it occurs in countless other Korean dramas -- Young soo is lying on a hospital bed in what looks to be an emergency room setting. He's just been struck by a car with a closed-head injury, but he's just LYING there . . . no oxygen mask, no IV, no heart-rate or pulse monitors hooked up . . . not even a dutiful nurse or curious orderly poking and prodding the patient.

Maybe that kind of 'realistic' is a bit too expensive for the props department fund or something.